Review: Melt-Banana – Fetch

Melt-Banana
Fetch
A-Zap Records
Street: 10.01
Melt-Banana = Deerhoof + Anamanaguchi – Shonen Knife
Melt-Banana releases their first studio album in six years, and it’s a scorcher! Fetch will have you scrambling after their lightning-paced rhythms and the frenetic phrasings of vocalist Yasuko Onuki, and Ichirou Agata’s guitar explorations—which are all over the place in terms of the fretboard and effects—that range from video game noises to natural sounds. Amid the punk-pop-dance hybrid sonic range (it’s hard to describe, but is all idiosyncratically their own) sounds of waves, frogs, insects and birds find their place on the record. The Fukushima earthquake interrupted recording in 2011, and those sounds were a means they used to reconnect with nature. Their music still sounds like something created by a mad scientist, though. Their show at the Urban Lounge on Oct. 20 with Kinski was one of the most explosive musical events of the year. –Stakerized!